The Proverbs 26 Troll, or,

[bellatrys]

Towards a Grand Unified Semi-Coherent Theory of Comment Management

~being Yet Another in the siding line of posts begun a while back and delayed due to my accident~A few weeks ago I brought the banhammer down only for the second time ever (deliberately annoying people until they go away doesn't count) as my stated and default policy is to let

Comments

[violaswamp]

I have definitely seen Control Trolls.

I agree that "proprietor" is a better model for a LJer or mod than "homeowner." LJs, unless they're flocked, are a public sphere. Not "public" as in "taxpayer funded," but "public" as in "open to strangers"--exactly like a pub, or maybe a community potluck dinner.

OT

[lyorn]

Have been wondering where you have been, now I see that the latest LJ idiocy is disappearing your posts from my friends page.

Trying to fix it.

What the hell?

[deiseach]

I see LJ is running around with its head up its backside again. What happened this time - some concerned parent threatened to sue their behinds off because little Johnny was reading posts that said "Oh, fudge!"?

First time I ever had to sign an age statement to access anything - dear LJ, not only am I over 14, I'm blinkin' old enough to be the mother of a 14 year old!

And all your posts are labelled "Content may not be suitable for minors." In this instance, I would take that as a compliment.

Does this mean from now on you'll have to card evilstorm? ;-)

Oh, for feck's sake!

[deiseach]

Now that I'm properly logged in like a good little obedient lj robot, I see I can flag your journal (or, I suppose, anyone else's) for naughtiness.

Are these guys totally feckin' stupid or what? Remember the little difference of opinion on here with Ellen Datlow? I do not attribute malice such as this to her, but merely propose it as a hypothesis: what is to stop her and her friends, in similar instances, of each flagging the five times in twenty-four hours permitted and gumming up the works by forcing LJ to examine the journal in question?

Anyone with an army of flying monkeys could do the same, either from malice or as a "joke".

Besides which, as I commented to them, I disagree with making "adult" equivalent to "obscene". We certainly have adult content on here; I deny that it's obscene, indecent, pornagraphic, or hate-speech.

Just when you think you've plumbed the depths of idiocy...

Uh oh.

[sajia]

What if the MRAs come after our Bella for her visual superhero parodies, flag them as "obscene", then turn around and say, "But YOU WERE ADVOCATING CENSORSHIP! How do you like a taste of your own medicine?" I wouldn't put it past them. Grr.

Re: Uh oh.

[nenya_kanadka]

Yargh. It seems both a unnecessary (we were getting along fine without it) and a useless (does no good for its intended purpose of keeping kidlets pure) policy. Sigh.

(And I thought I was the only one who abbreviated it "Bella" in my head. Or "Bella-ji", on the particularly Cherryh days. :P)

[nenya_kanadka]

I like this post. Moderating and how to figure out which of the parties in a drama is the instigator and which the victim (or, to what extent each is, as rarely are they purely good or evil) is coming up elsewhere for me, so this is useful. I definitely recognize the spam-troll with a zillion posts per hour. They make my head hurt worse than many other things.

Also, what Deiseach said--what the hell, LJ. The "click to prove you're over 14" is silly, but just one screen to deal with (and totally useless--what's to keep the 12-year-old from clicking hir mouse button??). But to make all your LJ-cut text into " You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors"! GAH!

LJ, LJ, why have you become so stupid in your old age? I used to like you!

Looks like she'll have to fiddle with her settings (ooh, missus!)

[deiseach]

So we're all solemnly warned (if we log out of our own lj and go here without logging back in) that this may contain material not appropriate for minors, and we must clicky da button or else, if we want to read Bellatrys saying "Thanks for all your kind wishes".

However, there is nothing to stop y'll rushing over to my lj to read my latest post full of filth and depravity (helpful link here: http://deiseach.livejournal.com/), even if you were all innocent little 13 year olds. No labels, no clicky, no nuthin'. I could have said *anything* on there, and not a geeks out of Frank the Goat or his trained monkeys.

So annoy the hell out of users and readers, but don't actually achieve anything useful or constructive in preventing what you claim to wish to prevent.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Re: Looks like she'll have to fiddle with her settings (ooh, missus!)

[nenya_kanadka]

Yep, just checked. Several explicit sexual communities that I know of on LJ lack the little "over 14" clicky button entirely. Or is it just journals, not comms? But, hmm, I checked a fiction journal or two that write "adult" stuff, and no...

Silly new rulez.

Maybe it's just paranoia, but...

[deiseach]

... skimming through some of the 4000+ comments, several raised the possibility this could be a way of LiveJournal forcing everyone to put a date of birth on their profile, so they could then data-mine for age and sell the info to advertisers.

That is beginning to sound vaguely reasonable to me, seeing as how the system as is appears to be so damn arbitrary (if you don't mark yourself as 'adult' or 'explicit', you can merrily post away as much depraved filth and filthy depravity as you wish; conversely, if someone takes again you, they can flag you as offensive even if you're only posting about the relative merits of the Sixth, Eighth and Ninth Doctors).

Tell me again how that is protekin' da childruns from nasty naughtiness?

which is why it's okay to kick them off the field

[bellatrys]

by preventing any real dialogue. :\

This is the key point, which you just made a lot more concisely for us - they don't want ANYONE to talk, so they disrupt. Banning them is also kind of like being the Umpire, blowing the whistle and benching the player who just won't stop "checking" after multiple penalties...